Christmas, Friend or Foe?

You know that Joni Mitchel song they always play around the holidays?  The one that is actually kind of depressing, but since Christmas trees are mentioned in the first line they always play it this time of year...

You know the one..."It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees, putting up reindeer and singing of joy and peace...I wish I had a river I could skate away on..."

I have a secret.  That's sometimes how I feel about the Holiday Season in general.  Shhhh....don't tell.

Life is hectic and my iPhone pings several times a day with tasks still undone, parties to plan for, presents to buy, checkbooks to balance and savings accounts to empty. Not to mention the Christmas cards I haven't sent yet, the gifts we still have to assemble and the hours I've still got left to obsess about whether or not everyone will like the their gifts...

Maybe its just because I'm a grown up, but it seems I spend half my time wanting to push off Christmas because I'm not ready yet and the other half hoping it comes quickly so that I can clean it all up and stow away the tree until next year.

The Little Mouths and I do many things to make the holiday special, from attending the Night of Lights downtown complete with fireworks to holiday concerts and checking out the Gingerbread houses on display at the Grand Wayne Center. And we never miss the Fantasy of Lights in Franke Park sometimes even via a horse and carriage. But even with all of the festivities, I admit I feel a rising panic at the thought of all I have left to do.

So I wonder, when did I allow December become something to be dreaded, instead of cherished? When did the days start to fly by in a blur instead of dragging with breathless anticipation? Instead of excitement, is that dread I feel growing each time we open a new day on the advent calendar?

I'm not sure, but I do know I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel. I want to get a bit of that lost Christmas magic back.

Because of the way the kids Christmas break fell this year, they have an entire week off of school before Christmas. We've booked a week of our timeshare at the Christmas Mountain Lodge in Wisconsin, enrolled the Little Mouths in Ski School and scheduled a couple of brush up lessons for Big Mama.

This year, we'll usher in the season swishing through a white pine forest or bouncing down a hill in a big inner tube or snuggling with hot cocoa in front of a roaring fire.

I'm looking forward to it and I'm wondering if this might just be the start of a new tradition.

What about you all? What are you all doing to keep the Christmas Crazies at bay??